Boxer Billy Dib's anguish was clearly visible as he entered the boxing ring for what he described as the "fight of his life".

The former featherweight champion is grieving the loss of his young bride Sara Selim to cancer in September last year and has not been in a boxing ring for the past nine months.

He was holding back tears as he stepped into the ring in front of a sold out crowd at the Emporium Function Centre in Sydney on Friday night and told ABC News the night's fight meant everything to him.

"There's a lot at stake I need to win. This is my happiness on the line," Dib said.

"I need to be a winner again I am tired of feeling like I'm coming off losses."

I always think about her. I was thinking about her last night. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about the situation that we went through

"People talked to me about it when I was a kid: 'you've gotta watch out for these dirty promoters' ... everyone told me that when I was a kid, but the excitement of signing a contract with 50 cent and going to America, it really overtook me and I allowed it to get the better of me," he said.